COLE CITY HOLLOW, Tenn. — On a rainy day, the grassy patch of land just across Georgia’s northwest border is muddy and forlorn.

Frank Fenn's insight:

How do access to resources and political boundaries affect the livelihood of large metropolitan areas? How do large urban areas extend their reach for scarce resources using political boundaries? Take a look at Georgia's example, as well as Florida and Alabama's claim to a river that mostly runs through Georgia. . .

Plague of 1348-49 spread so fast in London the carriers had to be humans not black rats, says archaeologist

Frank Fenn's insight:

Circumstantial introspection or hypothetical guesswork? Would rats choose to die in the same concentrated space anyway? No doubt rats had the disease, but what about other animals? Dogs? Cats? Birds? Would you find them congregated in deathly pose in a common place? Yes, humans were the eventual carriers, but animal migration and their methods and practice of death are quite different from those of afterlife-believing humans. Fleas and rats were the scourge of medieval towns all over the world, and it seems plausible that they would be blamed for the sickness, on the surface of ignorant times. Certainly, 'Black Death' was a reality, and it was a disease to which Europeans had no immunity, and most certainly was transported from another continent, Asia, much like the Europeans carried small pox to the Americas in a later century. I guess the anthropologists have a new reason to dig up gravesites and river bottoms now. . .

This classic Geography in the News by Neal Lineback has been re-released on his Lineback World View site. This is an excellent lesson for K-12 educators to prepare their students to understand the historic and geographic context of Thanksgiving.

OSLO (Reuters) - The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its historic role in uniting the continent in an award meant as a morale boost for the bloc as it struggles to resolve its debt crisis.

McDonald's already offers menu items that cater to local tastes in India. But this month, the fast-food chain said it was going a step further by announcing a plan to open its first vegetarian-only restaurants in the country.

These photos are very interesting, in the way it’s interesting to explore someone else’s house the first time you visit. Looking to see the differences in what people around the world eat, but also how much people around the world eat is fascinating. The fact that the family in Chad eat about one quarter of what most families around the world eat is really telling. What a family eats in week reveals a lot about both their culture, their economy, and their geographic location. It’s no surprise that the people in Japan eat a lot of fish, because they’re an island country; and it wasn’t surprising to see so much bread on the table of the Italian family, because bread is such a large part of the Italian culture. What I did find absolutely fascinating is that most of the families had a bottle of Coca-Cola on their table, which just goes to show you how interconnected our global community is.

These photos are very interesting, in the way it’s interesting to explore someone else’s house the first time you visit. Looking to see the differences in what people around the world eat, but also how much people around the world eat is fascinating. The fact that the family in Chad eat about one quarter of what most families around the world eat is really telling. What a family eats in week reveals a lot about both their culture, their economy, and their geographic location. It’s no surprise that the people in Japan eat a lot of fish, because they’re an island country; and it wasn’t surprising to see so much bread on the table of the Italian family, because bread is such a large part of the Italian culture. What I did find absolutely fascinating is that most of the families had a bottle of Coca-Cola on their table, which just goes to show you how interconnected our global community is.

This gallery of 16 families from around world together with their week food is quite a treat that shows agricultural, development and cultural patterns. Pictured above is the Ayme family from Ecuador, just one of the many family's highlighted in the book Hungry Planet. The Ayme family that typically spends $31.55 on food and commonly eat potato soup with cabbage.

Really fun way to engage students directly with geography, students can learn to use maps, GPS, latitude, and longitude, and get outside and interact with their environment at the same time. You can use geocaching in many ways in your classroom. You can have students do it to explore the area around their school, neighborhood, city. It can be a fun way to give students review questions for tests (they have to find the answers in the geocache) etc. the possibilities are endless.

This map is not a professionally produced map and that is the beauty of this website. Virtually anyone can make a 1-feature world map by simply clicking on a checklist all of the countries you want highlighted on your map. Second, open the file and add some text and a few lines to label it. This took less than 20 minutes to make with no need for any cartographic or GIS experience.

This map is not a professionally produced map and that is the beauty of this website. Virtually anyone can make a 1-feature world map by simply clicking on a checklist all the countries you want highlighted on your map. Second, opened the file and added some text and a few lines to label it. This took 20 minutes to make with no need for any cartographic or GIS experience (this PNG didn't compress well, the full image of this map can be seen here).

Through this interactive mapping feature with rich call-out boxes, the reader can explore the latest UN estimates and forecasts on the growth of megacities (urban areas with over 10 million residents). These 'cities on steroids' have been growing tremendously since the 1950s and present a unique set of geographic challenges and opportunities for their residents.

Through this interactive mapping feature with rich call-out boxes, the reader can explore the latest UN estimates and forecasts on the growth of megacities (urban areas with over 10 million residents). These 'cities on steroids' have been growing tremendously since the 1950s and present a unique set of geographic challenges and opportunities for their residents.

Download the data yourself as a CSV file and your can import this into ArcGIS online and symbolize your map with any of the columns in the dataset.

World cities and megacities - Presently , the mega cities of the world have to have a population of at least 10,000. Many cities are very near the minimum to be considered a mega city, but are not quite there. By 2025, the developing world, as we understand it now, is estimated to be home to 29 megacities.

ESPN Video: With the FIFA World Cup two years away, will Brazil be ready to host soccers premiere event?

This short sports documentary (12 minutes) looks at some of the socioeconomic and urban planning issues that are a part of the logistics for a country to prepare for a sporting event on the magnitude of the World Cup. The discussion of demolitions in the favelas (squatter settlements) is especially intriguing. Major sporting events of this magnitude that last for two weeks can reshape local geographic patterns for decades.

I know my soccer, and I know Brazil knows its soccer considering the country has one of the richest histories in the world. The nation eats, sleeps, and breathes the beautiful game and to host a World Cup right now is immaculate timing. Some of the best players (possibly ever) in the world would be playing next year, all from star-studded nations. The forecast for this spectacle will surely be one of the best in history, but that's if it all goes to plan. There's been many videos and articles of Brazil coming into more problems than solutions. Repairing and even building new stadiums have set back schedules and have even angered many locals. In some cities, there have been cases of gentrification, places such as favelas have fell victim. Being such a passionate fan of the sport, it's almost upsetting that all of these people are being misplaced to house the tournament which has been anxiously waited on since 2010. The main picture says it all with the three hands covered in blood... A nation which cares so much about a sport, where it is a way of life and prosperity, is in fact doing more harm than good in some areas. In the end I hope Brazil can get back on schedule, and leave as little people harmed in the process so the world can enjoy one of the greatest sporting events come summer of 2014.

The World Cup is getting closer and all eyes are on Brazil. The Favelas are seeing the worst of it. To improve their country for it's soon to be influx of tourists, the Favelas are going through practically forced renovations. Not to mention safety hazards in Brazil are being pushed to the limits with the building anf remidelling of the soccer stadiums. Just last month 2 construction workers part of the rebuilding were killed by an accident. The question is especially true. Will Brazil be ready? Soccer fans around the globe sure hope so.

This video was very helpful for me because the speaker clearly gave visual examples of the many topics that can steer certain voters in the U.S. to vote a certain way, during election time. It helped me better interpret political data, since I am a visual learner.

I used this during the Political Unit. I find that 9th graders know nothing about politics beyond what concerns them at the moment. Stretching their brain back to when they were 7 helps build the political foundations of the future!

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